"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Missionary conferences were always times of
great fellowship with pastors, congregations,and other missionaries. For this particular conference
at a local church in Jackson, Mississippi, we
had already booked our stay in a house reserved for
missionaries. We arrived, settled into our accommodations,
rested from our trip from North Carolina,
donned our Sunday best, and then headed off to
another great adventure.
Arriving at the conference, we set up our display
and then looked at the displays of the other missionaries.
One in particular looked very familiar. This
display was manned by the White family, who were
members of Pastor Combs church, Community
Baptist Church in Oliver Springs, Tennessee and
had gone to the same Bible school as the one we
attended. They were very good friends, and our
children greatly enjoyed playing with their seven
children. After discovering their presence at the
conference, we had a good time of fellowshipping
and reminiscing.
Soon the call for mealtime was issued. This was
always one of our favorite times at conferences, for
our next meal would likely not come until some time
later down the road. As we finished our meal and
headed for the dessert line, Linda spotted the most
beautiful strawberry cake ever, and of course, we
all took a slice. “Honey,” she commented, savoring
each bite, “if there is any of this cake left over, I
sure would like to have it.”
We then headed to the auditorium, and I presented
our ministry in Africa. After the service, the
pastor asked all the missionaries to line up at the
door so everyone could greet us as they left. While
in line Linda and I commented to each other that the
strawberry cake certainly would be delicious for a
snack later at the mission house.
Soon we noticed a woman coming down the
line, and guess what she was carrying? Yes, it was
the remainder of that luscious strawberry cake.
Stopping in front of my wife, the woman asked if
she would like to have the remainder of the cake.
Now how did she know Linda wanted the cake?
I controlled myself, while Linda inquired about
returning the beautiful platter. She was told to keep
it, and thus we received a double blessing.
As we were leaving, we invited the White family
to join us in the mission house for a time of fellowship.
All fourteen of us crowded into the house;
guess what we did? Yep, we dove into that awesome
strawberry cake and devoured it in no time at all.
After a time of fellowshipping with the White
family they said they must leave soon to drive to
another church for a mission conference the following
day. They also confided that they did not
have enough money for gasoline to reach their destination.
There had been no love offering from the
mission conference for either of us.
We did not have much money either, but we
did not need to leave until the next morning. The
longer I thought about the White’s need, the more
the Lord seemed to impress upon me to give them
our money. Well, Lord, if I give them all our money,
what are we going to do tomorrow when we leave
for our next meeting? The Lord seemed to answer,
“Trust Me, and I will take care of you tomorrow.”
My wife and I talked and agreed that we should give
them our money for their trip.
Many thoughts were running through my mind
as we considered this decision, However, by this
time in our ministry, I knew enough to trust the Lord
and to obey His promptings always. Following His
instruction, we gave the Whites all the money we
had. Needless to say, they were taken aback and
protested, saying we could not do this since we
would need the money for our trip tomorrow. But
we insisted, reminding them that they had to be
at their meeting before we had to be at ours, and
besides, the Lord had laid it upon our hearts to do
this. They thanked us then we had prayer, and they
headed down the road around midnight.
What were we to do now? We had no money, no
gas and no food for tomorrow. Should we worry?
No, we should trust God. As a family, we prayed
asking God to give the Whites traveling mercy, and
then we retired for the night.
When we awoke the next morning, our need
was still there. “What?” you might ask. “Were you
expecting a miracle to happen overnight?” Well,
Actually, we were, and it would not have been out
of God’s character if it had happened that way. But
nothing visible had changed by morning, so we
loaded our vehicle with our luggage and went back
into the house to pray.
As we were praying, a knock came at the door.
I prayed this was the miracle for which we were
looking. I asked my family to keep praying while I
answered the door. Standing there was a man who
asked me to step outside. He told me that he was
a troubleshooter for a telephone company and had
been at the church last night. He had heard my
testimony, and the Lord laid it upon his heart to give
us some money. Grateful for his kind act, I thanked
him, and he hurried off to work.
Back in the house, we were all praising the Lord.
Our miracle had arrived in the nick of time. We
headed to our van and decided to count the money.
It was just enough to get us halfway to our destination.
Halfway was better than nothing, we proceeded
with our plans.
I started the vehicle, and suddenly the same man
pulled in behind us. I jumped out of the van and
walked over to see him.
“When I gave you the money a while ago,” he
explained, “I only gave you half of what I was supposed
to give. The Lord was working on my heart
so much that I had to come back and give you the
remainder.”
I shared with him about our need for funds and
told him how we had been praying when he knocked
on our door. He was all smiles and said he was glad
he had come back. I explained to him that his first
gift was just about half of what we needed and how
grateful I was that he had listened to the Lord and
returned with the additional amount. I thanked him
for his sacrificial gift of caring he went on his way.
Getting back into our vehicle, we once again
counted the money. Praise the Lord, we had enough
for food and fuel to get to our next destination. We
departed that morning with a greater faith in the
God who had called us into the ministry.
(Copyright by Jay B Ayers)
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